Susan Weinschenk, author of Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? analyzes the website of an international charitable organization. By making a few changes in the site design, she suggests, the group could increase the amount of good they're already doing for the world.

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If you're like me, you probably have some favorite charities
that you love. One of my favorites is FINCA International. FINCA is a
microlending organization that sets up "village banks" all over the world, with
local people, and then makes "micro" loans ($50 or $100) to help those people
start or expand a business. This strategy allows people to pull themselves out
of poverty.

FINCA has an extensive website that obviously required a lot
of effort. But by making some changes to the site, using more of the principles
in Neuro
Web Design: What Makes Them Click?, the website could be more
persuasive—and thereby would get FINCA's message out to more people, more
persuasively, and bring in more donations as a result.

Let's take a look at what FINCA is doing well (from a Neuro Web
Design point of view) and what could make the website more powerful and
persuasive.

Use Pictures and Stories to Capture and Hold Attention, Engage Empathy

Photos capture attention. Depending on the images in the photos,
they can engage many parts of the brain. You can use photos at a website to get
the attention of the midbrain (the emotional part of the brain) and the old
brain (the part of the brain that's concerned with survival, danger, sex, and
food).

The FINCA site uses many colorful photos, but could use them
more effectively. First, let's look at the home page (see Figure 1).

Pictures are powerful drivers for our behavior and emotions, but
they're more powerful if the people in the pictures connect with us; for
example, if they appear to be making eye contact. In the picture at the top of
Figure 2, the two people are not looking out of the screen at us—they're
looking away. These pictures would engage the midbrain and old brain more
directly if the people in the pictures looked at us.

The text on the top picture is also hard to read because it
consists of mostly white letters on a mostly light-colored background. But if
you look closely you can see that it says "FINCA's microlending programs bring
results... increased incomes, more nutritious food, children in school instead
of working." There are two problems with this text (well, three if you count
using the wrong color for the text):

The picture shows a child who is not in school—it looks like the child might actually be working. The image doesn't match the text. Is this a family that has been helped, or is this a family that needs help? It's not clear.

The picture has text written on it, but the text is not about the people in that picture.

Stories are powerful, and pictures that tell a story are even
more powerful. In the picture at the top of the page, it's hard to tell what the
people are doing, and the words on the
picture aren't about the picture, so
there isn't really a story to be told.

The last problem with this particular picture is that you can't
click on the picture to get a detailed story about the people in that picture.
You can get details on clients at a different place on the website, but you
should be able to get the full story of the people pictured by clicking on the
picture, and it's not set up that way.

Throughout the site are more photos, most of which show happy
people around the world. Happy photos are good, but the site misses an
opportunity to engage the old brain. Having photos of people in trouble, in
danger, in poverty would engage the old brain and compel action to donate.

Research shows that when people read a story about other people,
certain parts of the brain are activated that can instigate a feeling of
empathy. This empathy can then spur the viewer to act. The inside pages of the
FINCA website have great client stories with lots of detail, but those stories
are hard to find. If they were more prominent, the site would be more
persuasive.